Wednesday 28 July 2010

How To Drop That Pesky Excess Weight?

Easy...I lost a couple of ounces (not true value) by having unxpected keyhole surgery to remove my apendix on Tuesday!!

Not the update I was hoping to give you, so please be patient with me 'til I get home from hospital and get things sorted...probably after the weekend

Saturday 24 July 2010

How Queer!!

No update at the moment, I seem to be sat here with a raging temperature, the room spinning and feeling like I'll be spending some time in the bathroom tonight....looks like I spent too much time making sure everyone was drinking enough stood in the sun and not enough time doing it myself...what a plonker.

Will post update when room stops moving so much.....oh and by the way, it is most certainly not booze related before you jump to conclusions =o)

In A Packed Programme Tonight....

Phew, what a day that was! Fingers crossed we've got it all sorted for tomorrow and anything that isn't can wait til the morning.
Everyone is looking forward to a packed event tomorrow and the beauty of it is that for a rare opporunity we get to see most of it too...fighting Turks and Hungarians, a tussle with a bodyguard, the King/Queen dining, a german ambassador who is actually German...the list goes on.

If it goes like it should it'll be a corking event, so expect an after action report tomorrow evening.

TTFN

Thursday 22 July 2010

PRO Progress

Well a top day spent at the National Archives today has seen me claw a little bit of that lost research time back....woo hoo!

Lots looked at, in the main to see how close a lot of the Victorian calendar versions of the documents are and to check if/what was left out....mostly not much as it happens, so I can be happy that the conclusions I'm drawing so far are based on reasonable evidence and not just based on incomplete secondary sources...all in all a great use of a day...and hopefully the first of a few as I still have a looooong list of documents I need/want to look at. All I have to do is get my eye in on reading the scratchy Tudor handwriting....I'll never complain about my doctors scribbles again!!

So, this weekend then, I suppose I'd better let you know what you're likely to hear from me....truth be told, not much until the end of Saturday and then possibly something on Sunday. Saturday is an all hands in period clothes event, so no chance to Tweet or post here...and no chance to take pictures for either Robert or myself.....Terry has threatened to pop along so fingers crossed he'll take a few and we might even be able to sweet talk him into using Roberts camera if he does show (although I know he had a lot planned for this weekend, so who knows if/when we may see him....drop me a line if you're reading this Terry, you know how to get in touch easiest)

Fingers crossed the weather holds for Saturday at least as it would be a real shame to have rain stop play...unfortunately there's no wet weather option that's much of a substitute for the planned shenanigans, so let's just hope it stays sunny....but cool...don't want to be stood in the garden with no shade in blazing sunshine now do we?

Afraid this has to be another brief post as I need some kip and the words on the screen are starting to look like a big black blur...not too conducive to sensible writing I feel.

More as and when over the weekend, should be able to Tweet some set-up details and images tomorrow fingers crossed.

TTFN

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Silence Is Golden....

but this is ridiculous!

Lots of things on my plate keeping me busy have meant letting it slide a little here...apologies, but I'm afraid that's the way the cookie crumbled over the last few weeks.
Just a quickie now to say that I am alive and there will be stuff forthcoming, especially as we're cooking this weekend and Saturday sees the flotilla event in full effect with Henry dining alfresco in the Privy Garden along with all sorts of stuff going on in the Palace until 10.00 at night!!

But for now, I'm only here whilst I'm saving a few references ready for a trip to the Public Record Office tomorrow to actually get on with the research that is now wildly behind schedule...perhaps the odd update via Twitter over the day, who knows?

Plans are moving ahead for future events, mostly because of departmental holidays taking people out of the supply chain loop for the bulk of August, so I have to get shopping lists for both Augusts and September sorted pdq....as soon as plans are finalised I'll let you all know what's what.

That's all for now I'm afraid...long day tomorrow and this hot spell we're having at the moment is really not conducive to a good nights sleep.

TTFN.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Tell Me The Old Old Story!

Unsurprisingly, things took a little longer than I'd planned this evening...a phone call to Carter tends to do that...so I've not got round to sorting out the images from the past weekend...still, will give me something to do tomorrow perhaps.

I have though found a video of Dave running the mini jousting game from June, so will pop that at the bottom of the post for your viewing pleasure.

I suppose that the weekend went well, but won't be too sure until I get a look at the picture we took....I know what we actually did, but the pictures and diary are a visible measure to show the boss in the future so it's always best that we have something to show, even if we did a lot more than we recorded.

Plans seem to have changed for the August Bank Holiday weekend and it looks like there will now be a Tudor joust on that event...as far as I am aware it is planned to be similar to last years event, but with the kinks ironed out...as and when I get details I shall let you all know...hell, it might even prompt me to sort out the pictures I took last year to show you...which I completely neglected to at the time. All that aside, it does mean that any plans I had for the cookery that weekend will now need to be changed in order to accommodate plans from the top....will have to wait and see what those plans actually are though!
I'm pretty sure that nothing will be decided until after the next weekend at the end of the month....if that goes well it may be that elements from that weekend will be 'recycled' for August, but at the moment who knows??

The plans for the 2nd July event are fairly set now (see previous posts for details such as they are), just the menu and shopping list to prepare then all the nitty gritty of moving furniture and so on to sort out on the day....and I mustn't forget that the first August weekend follows on pretty sharpish so need to get a shift on with ideas for that weekend too...possibly looking at some recipes that would work well for a modern summer barbecue?

Well, that's it for the moment as until the images are transferred I'm kind of at a loss of what to report from the past event...other than the obvious...it was hot!!!

So for now, here's Dave doing what he does really really well....



TTFN

Sunday 4 July 2010

As Expected....

Robert and I will swap around tomorrow, so there will be a lot less 'tweeting' as I'll be in my Tudor clothes cooking away...or should that be sweating away?

Other than that there's not much to say at the moment....the guys did all that was planned and we spoke to lots of VERY interested people. A better report will follow when I've looked at all the images and remembered what we *actually* did !!!

Bed time now, more if the opportunity presents tomorrow.

TTFN

Saturday 3 July 2010

Whasup?

Time for the quickest update before bed now that I've got a mobile signal!

Had a chat with Robert and we've decided to split shift the weekend and have a day each recording and cooking, with Robert cooking tomorrow and me taking pictures and vice versa on Sunday.....what does that mean for you?
Simply put...more tweets during the day tomorrow, possibly with pictures of the guys doing their thing, along with (hopefully) a blog update late in the evening....then on Sunday, if time and visitors allow, a couple of tweets ans then a blog update, probably on Monday.

If all goes well then we should have some images and possbly video to share next week, if not then it might well be time to raid the archive once again!

More news, lists of recipes and all manner of updates tomorrow, signal and technology willing...

TTFN

Thursday 1 July 2010

Fascinated....

as you may have seen on the Twitter feed, I'm fascinated by the number of people who have 'followed' then 'un-followed' a day or so later..in one case within hours! OK so it's not hundreds, but when you only have 15 followers, you notice every one come and go.

Almost all of them appear from the name or bio or picture to be connected with food in some way...critic/reviewer/recipe 'creator' and definitely 'modern' food. I'm just fascinated as to the Twitter mentality of "follow....oh actually it's not for me, I'll un-follow" when surely watching their tweets for a while would tell you what you're gonna get and how frequently you'll get it.

I'd like to think that if you read through the Twitter profile that you might visit the blog and have a look at the sort of things you're likely to get....yes there's food stuff, but certainly in my mind that's secondary to the history stuff.

Simply put...I'd think it was obvious, if you read the drivel that I write here and on Twitter, what you were going to get...that's all it was about, not about ratings or numbers or undesirables ;0)

As it happens last month was a bumper one for visitors...a record 877 visits over the month, so thanks to all that came and more thanks to all that have 'stayed' as it were.....I can only promise you more of the same!!

Now on to other things.....

This weekend sees another blast of activity in the kitchens, sorry but I can't recall what we've got planned as the food conference has been totally all consuming for me for the last week...I'm sure I remember some roast mutton being on the plans as well as a couple of tarts and another go at the 'snow' recipe, using the pictures has been great for looking at where our versions have diverged from the recipe and although I'm not too worried about following the words to the letter (more about this in a future posting) there are certain things that can't be missed out and the concentrating on single recipes to record them along with the diary that we are keeping has been very useful in terms of future planning....but as you know I've said all this before!
I think that there are a couple of sweet cream based dishes too, but as I was saying to Carter earlier, I've had no confirmation about the shopping order, so who knows what's going to happen.

It's now back to business as usual and planning for the next few events now that the conference is out of the way. I seem to have been received well enough, well at least a few people got one of the points I was making (mainly about looking at the data being recorded today and asking if it's the right data for the future as well as for current business) and enough people asked enough questions for the organisers to be happy that they'd invited me.
I think it was worthwhile going from my point of view...even if a lot of the hardcore science went well over my head (I really didn't need to hear so much about alpha linolenic acid and long chain omega 3 additions to the meat output of the UK...at least I don't think I did anyway)....there was still some really fascinating stuff about climate change and the meat industry, dairy produce and a host of other stuff that I'm sure I won't remember until the proceedings are published.

Oh well, back to the Tudor kitchens now, should be there from midday tomorrow with posts and Tweets as and when I get the chance.....but as I can say, don't expect me to be producing a foodie review site any time soon ;0)

TTFN